Aircraft of the “AIRBUS” product family have hitherto not featured an adapter for coupling connecting pipes, which adapter would open up the option wherein with little manual effort corresponding pipe connections for potable water pipes, waste water pipes and vacuum pipes can lead through the floor of a passenger aircraft, without imposing difficulties in the installation of the pipes, and consequently involving a corresponding increased labour outlay. In the past, no such adapter of the type stated was available for pipe installations which for example (intermittently) carry sewage from flushing the toilets (during a flight). Up to now, the installation technology for such sewage pipes, which lead from the passenger deck to the below-floor region and which thus inevitably lead through the floor, involved enlarged holes in the floor through which holes the sewage pipes have been fed to collection containers in place in the below-floor region. For reasons of saving weight, there will not be any alternative in routing such lines because routing lines in an indirect way would understandably involve an increase in aircraft weight. There is thus no need to further consider existing spatial conditions and arrangements. Based on the described routing of sewage pipes it becomes understandable that inadequate sealing-off of sewage pipes leading through the floor against the hole wall has been met with ongoing criticism because the intended tightness in this floor region does not meet the required standards. Furthermore, if one takes into consideration that in the case of large-capacity aircraft, for example the passenger aircraft of the type “A380” pipe connections of the type described in the example lead through several passenger decks, the extent of the sealing loads becomes even clearer, provided said conventional installation technology as shown in the example of the sewage pipes is applied, because the use of floor adapters for vacuum pipes in a commercial aircraft has not hitherto been known in known aircraft types.
Experts know that in aircraft engineering (apart from the presented situation relating to the installation of vacuum pipes) connecting pipes are often used for supplying potable water or for draining waste water, wherein the liquids which are supplied or let out necessarily have to lead through the floor of an aircraft, because the toilets and the wash-rooms are normally installed in the cabin region (passenger region) and it is in these support regions that the connection of corresponding connecting pipes will take place. Although below the floor in the cargo compartment region there are suitable collection containers for the above-mentioned liquids, apart from direct pipe routing through the floor to the above mentioned support regions, which direct pipe routing is not advantageous for service and maintenance reasons, there is only the option of a floor adaptation of the connecting pipes, wherein such a desired adaptation, however advantageous it may seem, will be subject to certain requirements and also difficulties during installation.
At present, Airbus products, in particular those in the long-range fleet, are equipped with adapter plates 110, 140 which comprise a rotationally symmetrical adapter top 120, 150 and adapter bottom 130, 160, and are embedded in a floor plate 107. For attachment, of a known adapter used, to the floor of an aircraft, and for creating a leadthrough from pipes 101, 102 through said floor to pipes 1′, 2′, a technically skilled person will refer to the attached FIGS. 5, 5a and 5b, which said person will independently contemplate and interpret with their accumulated specialist knowledge and experience. It should be added, because it is not clear from the figures, that attachment of the adapter top and adapter bottom within the floor panel takes place in so-called inserts with the use of screws. Furthermore, three quick-closing screws 109 connect the adapter top to the adapter bottom. It should be mentioned that based on the subsequently stated disadvantages these adapter plates used are not being considered for the adaptation of vacuum connections in Airbus products. Aircraft of the type “Airbus” are not fitted with a vacuum adapter on which adaptation of connecting pipes subject to a vacuum, for example for conveying sewage, can be undertaken, in regard to which vacuum adapter there is no model in the state of the art as far as the particular use (adaptation of vacuum pipes) and intended purpose (conveyance of sewage) in an aircraft is concerned. Such solutions for a (comparable) potable-water connection and waste water connection implemented according to the model shown in said figures provided one does not consider the aspect of particular requirements concerning connecting pipes subjected to a vacuum and intended for adaptation are associated with a disadvantage in that during the transport of potable water or waste water (their intended use), isolated leakages occur which are caused by the (not particularly stable) quick-closing connections which are used for fitting the potable water or waste water connecting pipes to the adapter. There is thus a danger that the water which will exit from the leaking positions of the adapter can penetrate to regions situated underneath the aircraft floor, which is likely to cause safety-relevant damage.
Furthermore, installation personnel have often criticised the design of such adapter plates because fitting requires additional installation effort because final connection of the connecting pipes that are connected to the water system or to the waste water system can only take place below the floor. This measure always requires a change in the horizontal plane by the pipe installer, as a result of which the individual technological expenditure relating to time and preparation is unnecessarily increased. A further point of criticism which (in particular in aircraft engineering) deserves particular attention relates to the weight of the adapter, which weight is by no means favourable, and to the large number of parts for each coupling to be established.
An observer will easily recognise the heavy weight purely by noticing the relatively large dimensions of the adapter tops and bottoms, without having to examine in detail the materials used in these adapter components. A technically skilled person versed in aircraft engineering will notice that with the use of these aforementioned adapter plates corresponding integration problems within regions of the aircraft that are difficult to access are at first unavoidable. Such regions that are difficult to access are often encountered, not only during initial fitting out of the aircraft, but also later during service and maintenance. Thus, the installation personnel who will carry out pipe installations for the galleys and toilets of an aircraft of the type “Airbus A340” will not find any identical pipe connections which are matched to each other, because technologically different connection principles are to be observed. This practised installation technology requires a corresponding plurality of parts relating to different below-floor pipes, which plurality is to be taken into account in the connection of two connecting pipes, which connection is inevitably continued through the floor of the aircraft, and which plurality must also be taken into account in the adaptive connection of these pipes to a pipeline adapter firmly seated in the floor, as said plurality nearly doubles in such an arrangement.
These disadvantages, together with those disadvantages stated in the context of the vacuum pipe installation, provide a technically skilled person with sufficient reason to ponder how to improve the various described connection technologies involving a pipeline adapter such that said technically skilled person can state a solution by means of which the stated disadvantages as set out, of the state of the art, can be overcome and replaced by connection technology for advantageous coupling of connecting pipes in a commercial aircraft.
Accordingly, there may be a desire to improve an adapter for coupling two connecting pipes in a commercial aircraft such that it will be possible to attach the adapter without significant labour outlay to an attachment surface, and so that it will be possible, with the adapter, to implement leakage-free (non-dripping and pressure-proof) adaptation of the connecting pipes, which adaptation can be carried out efficiently. In this approach, a reduction in the multitude of different connecting pipes and a reduction in the multitude of components of the adapter is to be achieved, and furthermore, the need for installation personnel to change from one horizontal plane to another when installing the adapter in the floor is to be obviated.